Maria Aurora of Königsmarck

Countess Maria Aurora of Königsmarck (sv: "Aurora Königsmarck") (28 August 1662 – 16 February 1728), was a Swedish noblewoman and mistress of Augustus the Strong, Elector of Saxony and King of Poland.

Life

Aurora was born at Stade, the second child and eldest daughter of the Count Kurt Christoph of Königsmarck and his wife, Maria Christina of Wrangel. Her older brother, Karl Johann, was a Maltese Knight and a famous adventurer; her two younger siblings were Amalia Wilhelmina -by marriage of Lewenhaupt- and Philip Christoph, who was the lover of the princess Sophia of Celle, wife of the later King George I of Great Britain.

She spent her childhood in the Schloss Agathenburg. When her father died on 1673, her mother Maria Christina took the place of head of the family. From 1677, she began to travel with her family and visit the family properties in Sweden and Germany.

In Sweden, she and her sister Amalia were the most celebrated beauties at the Royal court. They often performed as amateur actresses in the theatrical performances of noble youths encouraged by the queen, and she also belonged to the intellectual circle around the salon-hostess Sophia Elisabet Brenner. When her mother died (1691), Aurora left Sweden.

Aurora and her sister passed some years at Hamburg, where she attracted attention both through her beauty and her talents. In 1694 she went to Dresden, to make inquiries about her brother Philip Christoph of Königsmarck, who had mysteriously disappeared from Hanover. She solicited the help of the Elector Frederick Augustus I to find Philip and, in case he was dead, to resolve any potential inheritance issues.

Shortly after, the Elector made her his first official mistress. On 28 October 1696, in the city of Goslar, she gave birth a son, Maurice, afterwards the famous marshal de Saxe.

However, the Elector quickly tired of Aurora, who then spent her time trying to secure the position of abbess of Quedlinburg, an office which carried with it the dignity of a princess of the Holy Roman Empire, and to recover the lost inheritance of her family in Sweden. In January 1698 she was made coadjutor abbess and two years later (1700) lady-provost (Propstin) of Quedlinburg, but lived mainly in Berlin, Dresden and Hamburg.

In 1702 she went on a diplomatic errand to Charles XII of Sweden in his winter camp in Courland on behalf of Augustus, but her adventurous journey ended in failure. The countess, who was described by Voltaire as "the most famous woman of two centuries", died at Quedlinburg, aged sixty-five. Her namesake and great-great-granddaughter, Aurore Dupin, became the French novelist George Sand.

References

* Voltaire, "Histoire de Charles XII", Oeuvres completes, Tome XXII, Paris 1821. 89-90 pp.
*F. Cramer, "Denkwürdigkeiten der Gräfin M. A. Königsmark" (Leipzig, 1836); and "Biographische Nachrichten van der Gräfin M. A. Königsmark" (Quedlinburg, 1833)
*W. F. Palmblad, "Aurora Königsmark und ihre Verwandte" (Leipzig, 1848-1853)
*C. L. de Pollnitz, "La Saxe galante" (Amsterdam, 1734)
*O. J. B. von Corvin-Wiersbitzki, "Maria Aurora, Gräfin von Königsmark" (Rudolstadt, 1902).